We met the world's quietest car today

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curiosity101

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A friend and I were out hacking today and a car managed to sneak up behind us without us realising. It was a single lane country road and it could have been anything up to a minute before we noticed the car. We must have looked so ignorant.

We'd been checking over our shoulders every minute or so cause it's a popular cyclist route so I can't believe how it managed to sneak up on us.

I need a rear view mirror! :D

Has anyone else come across really quiet cars? How do you avoid looking like an 'ignorant' horse rider?
 
Yes. I was riding along a single track road, no idea a car was behind me. Something made me look round and there was a small car about a foot from my horses tail!!!! I gave the driver a mouthful im afraid, I was awfully shocked at seeing it. If I'd stopped for some reason he would have run into my horse! It said 'eco' on it so I wondered if it was electric.
 
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We ride on narrow lanes and have a couple of drivers who, I presume because they don’t want to rev their engines, coast behind us. Others have new cars with very quiet engines. I have quite often stopped them and explained that we can’t always hear the engines because of hoofbeats, wind sound etc. One driver wound down his window and called out because we didn’t hear the car!

Now that is embarrassing.
 
We (well, OH really) have a hybrid Peugeot.
When it cuts to the electric cycle, it is utterly silent. We have to sometimes be careful of animals as they don’t hear us. If I come across Horses when it is on the electric cycle, I try and press the button to put it into diesel mode, before we get too close. I imagine this would not occur to non horsey folk, and I doubt a full electric car has a “noise” option.
 
Yes, they're a nightmare! Fortunately my horse does hear them - only an ear flick but it's enough once it had happened a couple of times and I'd cottoned on :D

I remember how years ago a lot of horses would jump out of their skin when one of those electric milk floats passed as they hadn't heard them
 
The driver was very courteous, he'd kept a really safe distance. It's just the fact we literally couldn't hear him. We were chatting away and there was a bit of a cross cross wind.

Reading the horses body language is probably quite a good one. Might take a bit of practice though. Definitely took me by surprise, the horses didn't care at all which does make me think they'd already seen it. Then again the horses we were riding are pretty bombproof.

I just don't want to ever come across as an ignorant rider, and I see a future where electric / hybrid cars are only going to increase in number.

Maybe I actually need to patent side / rear view mirrors for horses 😂
 
You can buy clip-on mirrors for cycle helmets (I hope they are shatterproof) so you could use one of those if you could work out how to attach it to your riding helmet (maybe slip the clip on part of it underneath a hatband?
 
This is a big problem with electric vehicles. At higher speeds, the tyres will make some rumbling noise, but at slow speeds they are almost completely inaudible.

Paris has been running electric buses up on the Montmartre hill for donkey's years. This is a very popular place for tourists, and there are often dozens of them idly wandering around in the middle of the road.

The electric buses have a device that makes a gentle "ting ting" bell sound, not at all like an aggressive air horn, to announce its presence.

I seem to remember that there was talk in the media a few years ago about requiring electric vehicles to have a noise device, I think it might have been the RNIB that was lobbying for it.

Here's an article from the US in 2016, and a more recent article from the UK.
 
Yep, I've had several occasions when I only realise there's a car behind from reading my horse, and have no idea how long they've been following. Don't think I've come across electric cars though, I think I didn't hear because of wind noise and usually the car is being very considerate and is waiting a large distance behind, probably also partly why I couldn't hear them. Although I have once had a car nearly go into my horse back legs when they tried to overtake on a corner and a dip onto a steep hill, they had to swerve and brake hard when a car came up the hill the other way. If I had known they were behind me I would have signalled to them to wait as I could see the oncoming car from my higher vantage point.

Generally I think they realise I just didn't hear and I'm not being deliberately inconsiderate because when I do look round and see them then straight away I'll then trot to a passing place or move onto a verge to let them pass, and give a clear thank you wave and nod.

I like the idea of a 'ting ting' noise, like a bicycle bell.
 
Not met an electric car whilst riding as yet, but our neighbours have just bought a Teslar electric car and you seriously can't hear it at all. It's only that their drive s gravelled that you know they're coming and going. I would imagine it would be a real pain to have one creep up on you. Maybe they ought to make them play a recording like a petrol engine so people can hear them, or have some sort of audible warning when they approach .... ?? We could have loads of fun thinking up an appropriate message and "voice" for such a thing .... :-)
 
These "silent" cars worry me to death - I feel it's only a matter of time before an animal - or human - gets seriously hurt, or worse, simply because you can't hear the stupid things! Give me a nice noisy diesel any day!
 
Imagine being blind with these electric cars. I thought they were going to make put a noise on them, flipping menace
 
cowgirl16 said:
These "silent" cars worry me to death - I feel it's only a matter of time before an animal - or human - gets seriously hurt, or worse, simply because you can't hear the stupid things! Give me a nice noisy diesel any day!
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I like the ethos of an electric car but the practicalities of crossing a road involve your ears as much as your eyes. When I had the horses, they were kept in a lovely field but it was opposite the farm and I had to cross a 60mph road twice a day. Going from the farm to field was fine, the view was very open both ways but coming back, you were on a bend and relied on audio aids as much a visual. I got caught out a few times, thinking it was safe to cross, only to find a silent assassin Toyota hybrid hurtling towards me! Other electric vehicles are available. Once you start moving with an 18hh Clydesdale it's pretty hard to stop.
 
We have a right hand turn just before a blind bend. We can't see anything coming until we're half way across the road so have always listened for traffic. We nearly came a cropper a few weeks ago when an electric car came round the bend. Luckily it was going fairly slowly - or rather around about the 30mph speed limit there is in the area so we had time to trot acorss but I dread to think what would have happened if it had been going any faster. Another blummin thing to have to contend with! We go further up the road, cross over at a safer spot and come back down to the turning now.
 
nearly got run over in a carpark when I stepped back to open my boot I didnt hear it and as I have limited neck movement didnt see it either I do tend to rely rather a lot on my hearing
 
I hadn't realised how much of a problem these electric cars are; there aren't very many round my neck of the woods.

Maybe it's time to start shaking the tree at the BHS to get some lobbying started.
 
DSW I I met a sneakily silent white van today :eek3: I have ears like a bat but didn't hear it. The pony knew it was there though. We were discussing saying that horses tend to see them but as riders we still jump if one sneaks up on us so might end up causing the horse to jump too. :rolleyes3:
 
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